Wilson 1995 - Revision history

Wtrettien: /* 7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain */

2011-06-12T17:01:36Z

7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain

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	:"Illustrations of microscopic objects were still competing meanwhile with other, more-dramatic images in the pages of proto-scientific academy publications. Grew published his cross-sections of plant stems in the German ''Miscellanea curiosa'', and these regular geometric figures, though not without visual interest, had to share space with a monstrous chrysanthemum, a monstrous lamb, a vegetable shaped like a pair of praying hands, a two-headed calf, a bearded woman, voided stones, and other natural and artificial wonders." (227)		:"Illustrations of microscopic objects were still competing meanwhile with other, more-dramatic images in the pages of proto-scientific academy publications. Grew published his cross-sections of plant stems in the German ''Miscellanea curiosa'', and these regular geometric figures, though not without visual interest, had to share space with a monstrous chrysanthemum, a monstrous lamb, a vegetable shaped like a pair of praying hands, a two-headed calf, a bearded woman, voided stones, and other natural and artificial wonders." (227)

	Abraham Cowley's ''Ode to the Royal Society'', in ~~SWprat~~'s ''History of the Royal Society'' (1667): "You've learned to read her smallest Hand / And well begun her deepest Sense to understand." (qtd on 228)		Abraham Cowley's ''Ode to the Royal Society'', in Sprat's ''History of the Royal Society'' (1667): "You've learned to read her smallest Hand / And well begun her deepest Sense to understand." (qtd on 228)

	Hooke: microscope can lead to being able to read the "alphabet of nature"; Glanfill argued that we cannot read the alphabet of nature, but only reason by analogy (228-9); "Boyle, too, despaired of understanding surface effects with the help of an underlying alphabet of forms and interactions and retreated to argument by analogy; and Locke, in his turn, offered his endorsement of analogy" (229)		Hooke: microscope can lead to being able to read the "alphabet of nature"; Glanfill argued that we cannot read the alphabet of nature, but only reason by analogy (228-9); "Boyle, too, despaired of understanding surface effects with the help of an underlying alphabet of forms and interactions and retreated to argument by analogy; and Locke, in his turn, offered his endorsement of analogy" (229)

Wtrettien: /* 8. Truths and Appearances */

2010-08-19T21:54:25Z

8. Truths and Appearances

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	"the microscope can show us process, not merely successive states. The worry of the philosopher is rather that what we see is always a product -- an idea, a visual image -- rather than something productive, so that it seems to follow that, if there are truly productive entities in nature, we cannot see them." (255)		"the microscope can show us process, not merely successive states. The worry of the philosopher is rather that what we see is always a product -- an idea, a visual image -- rather than something productive, so that it seems to follow that, if there are truly productive entities in nature, we cannot see them." (255)

	"it is thus strictly correct to say that our theories do not represent, do not correspond to, reality, and yet it is true that there is a reality beyond our representations and that it is the weight and ~~pus hof~~ that reality that determines the appearances for us." (256)		"it is thus strictly correct to say that our theories do not represent, do not correspond to, reality, and yet it is true that there is a reality beyond our representations and that it is the weight and push of that reality that determines the appearances for us." (256)

	"we are only forced again to extract meaning from the optically indeterminate" (256)		"we are only forced again to extract meaning from the optically indeterminate" (256)

Wtrettien: /* 8. Truths and Appearances */

2010-08-19T21:54:07Z

8. Truths and Appearances

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	"consciousness of form reached new extremes in the literature with which I have been concerned" (253)		"consciousness of form reached new extremes in the literature with which I have been concerned" (253)

			"why should we admit that the image delivered by the microscope is a better image, or a deeper or truer image, rather than simply another image?" -- '''"We see only surfaces, whatever we see is the effect of hidden machinery; therefore whatever we see is scenery and not truth, and, as an illusionistic object, it can play no causal role."''' (255)

			"the microscope can show us process, not merely successive states. The worry of the philosopher is rather that what we see is always a product -- an idea, a visual image -- rather than something productive, so that it seems to follow that, if there are truly productive entities in nature, we cannot see them." (255)

			"it is thus strictly correct to say that our theories do not represent, do not correspond to, reality, and yet it is true that there is a reality beyond our representations and that it is the weight and pus hof that reality that determines the appearances for us." (256)

			"we are only forced again to extract meaning from the optically indeterminate" (256)

Wtrettien: /* 8. Truths and Appearances */

2010-08-19T21:44:38Z

8. Truths and Appearances

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	microscope brought new images to be mapped onto human realm of knowledge, but didn't bring better understanding of function		microscope brought new images to be mapped onto human realm of knowledge, but didn't bring better understanding of function

			"consciousness of form reached new extremes in the literature with which I have been concerned" (253)

Wtrettien: /* 8. Truths and Appearances */

2010-08-19T21:37:48Z

8. Truths and Appearances

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	== 8. Truths and Appearances ==		== 8. Truths and Appearances ==

			Bachelard: microscope "constituted an actual impediment to knowledge in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, because it revealed things that were beautiful but that could not lead to the formation of new theories and things that suggested to observers theories of the wrong sort -- about the organic complexity and vivacity of inanimate nature -- and that made a quantitative handling of the phenomena seem impossible or unimportant" (251)
			* "matter of bad timing" (251)

			Wilson argues that the microscope "brought into being new phenomena"; dreamlike, but "had the intractability of fact, and when they could not be fit into preexisting systems, then systems were made around them" (252)

			microscope brought new images to be mapped onto human realm of knowledge, but didn't bring better understanding of function

Wtrettien: /* 7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain */

2010-08-19T21:33:12Z

7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain

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	== 7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain ==		== 7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain ==

			Ronchi: argues that medieval philosophers distrusted vision, therefore didn't use artifical optical devices like microscopes/magnifying glasses

			how did the microscope become accepted?

			verbal and visual descriptions both have to make decisions on what is "really" being seen (222-3)

			much caution in early descriptions

			:"Illustrations of microscopic objects were still competing meanwhile with other, more-dramatic images in the pages of proto-scientific academy publications. Grew published his cross-sections of plant stems in the German ''Miscellanea curiosa'', and these regular geometric figures, though not without visual interest, had to share space with a monstrous chrysanthemum, a monstrous lamb, a vegetable shaped like a pair of praying hands, a two-headed calf, a bearded woman, voided stones, and other natural and artificial wonders." (227)

			Abraham Cowley's ''Ode to the Royal Society'', in SWprat's ''History of the Royal Society'' (1667): "You've learned to read her smallest Hand / And well begun her deepest Sense to understand." (qtd on 228)

			Hooke: microscope can lead to being able to read the "alphabet of nature"; Glanfill argued that we cannot read the alphabet of nature, but only reason by analogy (228-9); "Boyle, too, despaired of understanding surface effects with the help of an underlying alphabet of forms and interactions and retreated to argument by analogy; and Locke, in his turn, offered his endorsement of analogy" (229)
			* analogies, though, "invite a regress" (230) -- don't lead to ''new'' understanding

			microscopy couldn't replace reasoning -- could show form, but still didn't explain function; "Grew, who filled pages with detailed drawings of plant parts as seen through a microscope, was forced to ask himself the question, what is this structure for?" (231)
			* "more images amount to more mystification" (231)

			microscope offers "only a series of unconnected views" (231)

			Malpighi: comparison between plants and animals justified (235)

			Locke and the microscope (240-3)

			Berkeley and the microscope (244-7); "theory of divine visual language ... instead of a science of inner textures and motions" (248)

	== 8. Truths and Appearances ==		== 8. Truths and Appearances ==

Wtrettien: /* 6. The Philosophers and the Microscope */

2010-08-19T20:45:15Z

6. The Philosophers and the Microscope

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	* peppercorn bulk == 10,000 seeds of hart's-Tongue		* peppercorn bulk == 10,000 seeds of hart's-Tongue

	:"~~Trew~~ was interested not only in the individuality of the human face and its meaning; he studied with a lens the patterns of the pores and ridges of the human hand as well, and saw in their distinctness and uniqueness proof that god had concerned himself with every particular and every detail." (182)		:"Grew was interested not only in the individuality of the human face and its meaning; he studied with a lens the patterns of the pores and ridges of the human hand as well, and saw in their distinctness and uniqueness proof that god had concerned himself with every particular and every detail." (182)

	construction of dignity in studying insects; Thomas Moffett's ''Theater of Insects'' (183-4)		construction of dignity in studying insects; Thomas Moffett's ''Theater of Insects'' (183-4)

	Swammerdam's struggle with religion, family, 186-9		Swammerdam's struggle with religion, family, 186-9

			did animals/plants spring from decaying matter -- without generation?

			:"In summary, the denial of generation by chance was not only a fixture of the orthodox doctrine of special creation in its adversarial relationship to the pagan doctrine of the productive powers of nature. It also exemplified the uniformity of nature -- '''nature as artifact''' -- and the economy of means in its production." (205)

			re: generation, plants and animals have much in common (205-6)

			Leibniz's monadology comes from interest in preformation; "as the animal unfolds itself into perfection, so too does the whole world, and the individual mind" (206) -- Leibnizian pananimism, influenced by ''Micrographia'', other microscopy in c17

			:"Exact natural historye ncouraged its contemplation as a system: as forming in itself a unity, a plenitude, and a harmony, independent of human interests. It also encouraged the subraction of moral attributes and purposes: the new discourse of nature was as impoverished in cultural terms as it was enriched in observational terms." (212)

			:"Physico-theology is not interesting simply as an interim episode in the secularization process and in the history of the fortunes of religious feeling and apologetics, but as an answer to the question, '''how does the book of nature come to be a book?''' How do the ''subvisibilia'' become the subject of literary and pictorial representation?" (213)

			Kepler story: contemplating what gift to give his patron, a snowflake falls on him -- he thinks this is a small gift; however, "the wit of the story is that Kepler did not make his patron a present of a snowflake but of a treatise on the snowflake. Small things may still have no value, but, from that point forward, a discourse on them does." (214)

	== 7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain ==		== 7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain ==

	== 8. Truths and Appearances ==		== 8. Truths and Appearances ==

Wtrettien: /* 6. The Philosophers and the Microscope */

2010-08-19T20:28:12Z

6. The Philosophers and the Microscope

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 == 6. The Philosophers and the Microscope ==
 == 7. The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain ==
 == 8. Truths and Appearances ==

Wtrettien: /* 5. Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion */

2010-08-18T21:48:45Z

5. Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion

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	== 5. Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion ==		== 5. Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion ==

			c17 research into the plague; from "bad air" theory to "bad living things in the air"

	== 6. The Philosophers and the Microscope ==		== 6. The Philosophers and the Microscope ==

Wtrettien: /* 4. Preexistent and Emergent Form */

2010-08-18T21:34:47Z

4. Preexistent and Emergent Form

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	*"The figure of the plant is in its seed; the figure of the chicken is in its yolk. (Wilson 124)		*"The figure of the plant is in its seed; the figure of the chicken is in its yolk. (Wilson 124)

	Swammerdam; unfolded pupa to show butterfly folded in on itself, "showing that the larva, pupa, and imago are simultaneously present and nested within each other" (125)		Swammerdam; '''unfolded pupa to show butterfly folded in on itself''', "showing that the larva, pupa, and imago are simultaneously present and nested within each other" (125)
			* very book-like!

			Malabranche approaches problem of infinity: if all seeds contain the whole plant, with all of its seeds, etc., then seeds-within-seeds becomes dizzingly infinite (127)
			* '''connect with plants as books, becomes Borgesian library problem -- problem of ''knowledge'''''

			chapter ends by looking at how microscopists thought of sperm

	== 5. Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion ==		== 5. Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion ==